Chapter 1
Leona saw Grizelda shake her head in pity. They rarely talked about her 'fallen ones' as Grizelda called them; she hadn't known them, and they had eyes to the present only. It suited them both; Leona tried each day to hide her ache for her lovers.
"His name? What does it matter now? One Neverwinter criminal is like all Neverwinter criminals."
Now Grizelda got interested, because the man wasn't making sense. "Criminal? Ye just said he was a paladin. Can't be both, Cap'n, unless Luskan is even more backwards than I thought."
Leona's heart pounded faster. She knew Casavir had left Neverwinter in some kind of dishonor. He didn't discuss it, but she knew it had to do with the owner of a pub in the city. And she also knew that if Lord Nasher still allowed him to join her, it couldn't have been all that dishonorable.
"Yeah, well, this guy was both. Both paladin and criminal. Killed a man. A Luskan man, mind you. Crime against the city, that is."
Grizelda scoffed under her breath. "Prob'ly deserved it, eh Leona?"
"Who was this man?"
"We sure didn't know, but the higher-ups did. Recognized him right away as a murderer from years back. Crazy thing, because the guy was raving loony by that time. Muttering something about chess games and wolves and bears and shadows."
Leona shook her head, trying not to make connections. Her bear, and Bishop's wolf, licking his wounds before she fell down through the rocks…
"Where…" Leona's voice cracked against her will as she pushed back a spark of hope. "Where is he now?"
The Captain's eyes narrowed. "Why d'you care? Gonna go looking for him? I knew I had you pegged for a bleeding heart, I did."
"Where. Is. He. Now?" Leona's voice had gone cold, and Grizelda knew that tone. She started packing up their things before this ended badly.
"Don't know. We handed him over, and that was the end of it. Bet it's top prison of the top. Guy like that, even half-dead already, hurt two of our men bad. He was fierce, that one. Feral. Hope they put him down like a dog by now."
Leona stood up. Before her dagger got all the way out, Griselda stepped in front of her, trying to be as tall as her short frame could muster. "Thanks for your time, Cap'n. We'll see you around the Port." Then she looked up and around at Leona as if to say, save it for the goblins. Leona resheathed her little dagger, and shot a look of daggers at the Captain instead. As she allowed herself to be led off, she muttered, "Khelgar would have let me at him. You are no damn friend at all."
"No, Ranger, I'm the best damn friend you've got. I think it's time for you to talk to Khelgar yourself and see if he can calm you down. I'm through coming between you and danger, in the name of a bunch of ghosts."
